RTS did go mainstream and it indeed turned into games very different from old school SC et al.
Plants vs zombies and LoL are the descendants of the genre and are or at least were, HUGE. Tower defense and moba are the two evolutionary paths that RTS took.
Tower defense is super mainstream, but moba, while huge isn’t really mainstream in my opinion. But one things for sure, they don’t have much in common with SC except the lineage.
If you miss that old style of game, that’s fine, but there are probably tons of ways to morph the RTS genre that solves its old problems, finds it more success, and still scratches that itch. I’m quite fond of Cannon Brawl, and Tooth and Tail had its issues but was on the right track.
That selling to the next buyer who throws money at you obviously leads to risks of getting shutdown. People don’t want or care about long term sustainability and cry when business daddy decides that record profits this year don’t match up with imaginary made up profit growth and hence declare this as a failure.
Edit: “Making good, profitable games ‘will no longer keep you safe’” But only if you sold your soul for a bunch of retirement money from Bethesda or whoever else. If you are so keen on that sweet retirement exit then your studio was doomed the moment somebody offered the founders to a buyout. I am baffled at how people are missing this obvious conclusion.
That selling to the next buyer who throws money at you obviously leads to risks of getting shutdown. People don’t want or care about long term sustainability and cry when business daddy decides that record profits this year don’t match up with imaginary made up profit growth and hence declare this as a failure.
Edit: “Making good, profitable games ‘will no longer keep you safe’” But only if you sold your soul for a bunch of retirement money from Bethesda or whoever else. If you are so keen on that sweet retirement exit then your studio was doomed the moment somebody offered the founders to a buyout. I am baffled at how people are missing this obvious conclusion.
I said what I said. That’s just the thing: I don’t want them dead anymore. I want them deprived of power, deprived of agency, and forced to watch the world they ruined actually repaired. Alive.
CEO says “I want to make more money”. Crowd responded “No shit”.
I’ve seen a theory that Steam is holding, possibly even for a time when Sony puts it in writing that players won’t need a PSN account permanently before they’re willing to relist the game which I think is a fair desire at this point.
It’s like an administrator/tenant relationship. Generally, the publisher controls the region locks, but if the publisher starts doing something potentially illegal or brand-damaging, like selling a bricked game, the store owner can also manipulate the locks.
If they couldn’t, a dev’s efforts to willingly commit brand suicide by releasing a game that bricks people’s computers (not beyond the pale given how stupid publishers are now) would also take Steam down with them.
That makes sense, but I haven’t seen any official announcement from Steam saying that they did this. Only speculation from random people. Any documentation I can find just seems to point to this being a decision that’s made by the company releasing the game (or in this case Sony as the publisher).
I doubt that Steam is still trying to block additional countries given that Sony has already announced that the PSN account requirement is being withdrawn.
The thing with the 3 new countries seems to be a fix by valve, you might notice that there were several invalid country codes in the previous restricted list.
NES releases don’t bother me because I was still a kid when I played them. Things released twenty years ago bother me because it seems like yesterday given that I was already an adult with an established career and a mortgage.
No that’s the point I’m making. When I read the headline I was horrified that it’s been that long since the original and they’re not even talking about that.
No I didn’t say it originally came out then I said that my first knee-jerk reaction was that it couldn’t possibly been that long since the original and then I came to realize it’s been so much longer
You know how kids will want anything that has their favourite character on it? Gamers are just like that. Elder Scrolls 6 can have 1 minute ads in between areas and it would still top sales charts because gamers cannot stop themselves.
I really hope the recent pushback Sony got will spark a new norm but I’m very cynical.
I think Sony just delisted Ghost of Tsushima from all countries where PSN isn’t available, even though it’s primarily a single player game that won’t require PSN.
So Sony is still on their bullshit, even though they conceded over Helldivers.
I’ve been an Xbox fan for a long time and 3 months ago my GamePass Ultimate subscription ran out. Been pondering buying up another 3 years to continue it since Hellblade 2 is coming out this month. This recent fiasco has changed my opinion of Xbox and I will no longer be supporting Xbox as I have been. Might buy a month membership just to play Hellblade for less than the actual price of the game, but otherwise I’m done. Fuck them
All that talk about how Xbox is investing in the Japanese market and then they close the one prominent Japanese studio that they own. The same one that, as the article points out, made Hi-Fi Rush which was “a break out hit”. What the hell, Microsoft.
Not even that, but usually this comes with the actual big target on your back: Being publicly traded.
Now of course, you can be publicly traded without being a big corp, and you can be a big corp that is held privately. But usually these big corpos are the ones that are on the stock market, and yes, the moment that happens everything becomes secondary to your actual responsibility: To the shareholders. Line must go up! And an easy one is to fire more workers.
Unless I’m not seeing something, game production is expensive. Most studios are 1-2 bad games away from closing their doors. Games are expensive as hell to produce and as much as it sucks the “going public” option is sometimes the only way to go.
It’s easy to forget but most small (1-3 people) team indie devs probably aren’t even working a salary. They split the earnings from the game and either live off of that or reinvest it into their company but the moment salaries need to get paid, or office space needs to be used (not really necessary for small teams) that’s when expenses get insanely high. I’m not a business person but I can understand why you’d want to “trim the fat” (I don’t support it at all but to play devil’s advocate, I can see the logic despite the flaws). Growth means structure, and structure means expense.
No. I mean someone with ethics and morals and just wants to sell something for a single price and be done.
There’s a reason Minecraft and Factorio get a lot of love. It’s because you pay once and you’re done. Yet they still make new things. Although Mojang is going that way.
Prey retroactively devaluaed Dishonored for me - as amazing as those were at their time, Prey showed what really could be obtained from the formula, and perfected every aspect of it.
It’s far more different than BioShock. BioShock is imo a linear shooter I never understood the “immersive sim” tag for BioShock. But Prey is non linear within a space station. You can break away from the main task whenever you want and investigate other things which all play into the main story. You can play Prey 10-20 times and have a different journey each time if you try. The Gloo Gun, Mimicry, etc are all things that allow you to play differently each time and find unique new paths. Talos 1 is chock full of details. The only similarity with BioShock is the reveal, the wrench, and some minor combat similarities. But it’s far more than that.
It’s for sure not the same as BioShock, with traversal and exploration the biggest difference, but it has similar vibes, at least as far as I have played. And at least in comparison with Dishonored.
You’re (mostly) alone in a giant, isolated station where a terrible disaster has happened, and must inject yourself with magic goo to be able to handle it’s warped former inhabitants. There’s definitely more of a stealth vibe than in Bioshock, but the feeling was similar for me.
In contrast, Dishonored takes place all over a crowded city with regular interactions between NPC’s which you can manipulate from the shadows. Most enemies can be killed or KO’d very straightforwardly, and there’s just much more of a revenge power fantasy about it.
But I digress. I can understand the comparisons to Dishonored, they just aren’t that similar in my mind.
Arkane games are always those games that require the “click” to enjoy.
I started every single Arkane title and stopped it for months before the world and what not pulled me back. That second time I finally get it and enjoy the hell out of the game more than before.
Should have called it Neuroshock as it would have been a great tie with the other “shock” immersive sims
We were still reeling the loss of Prey 2 and the political duplicity that may or may not have happened with Bethesda and Human Head which resulted in the cancellation.
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